1997–98 Grimsby Town F.C. season

During the 1997–98 English football season, Grimsby Town F.C. competed in the Football League Second Division.

Grimsby Town

1997–98 season
Chairman	Peter Furneaux
Manager	Alan Buckley
Stadium	Blundell Park
Second Division	3rd (promoted via playoffs)
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Fourth round
Auto Windscreens Shield	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: Donovan (16) All: Donovan (21)
Average home league attendance	5,601

Season summary

The 1997–98 season saw the return of Alan Buckley as manager, after an unsuccessful period at West Bromwich Albion, for Grimsby's most successful post-war season. In the summer of 1997, Buckley succeeded in bringing in players to the club who were to be instrumental in the club's upcoming season. Former skipper Paul Groves was re-signed from West Bromwich Albion, and Kevin Donovan and David Smith also joined the club from Albion. The mid-season capture of Huddersfield Town midfielder Wayne Burnett proved to be a great bit of business for Buckley. After a seemingly poor start to the League campaign, performances improved, which propelled the club into a promotion battle with Watford, Bristol City and an expensively assembled Fulham (at the time the only club at this level to have spent seven-figure sums on players). A good run in the League Cup saw The Mariners knock holders Leicester City and fellow Premier League side Sheffield Wednesday out of the competition before finally losing out to Liverpool. A decent run of form had ignited the careers of such younger players as Daryl Clare, Danny Butterfield and Jack Lester who were becoming an integral part of the Blundell Park set-up. The Mariners went on to dump Burnley out of the Football League Trophy Northern section area final, which would see the club book its first trip to Wembley Stadium.[1] The club were drawn against Southern section champions AFC Bournemouth and in a tight game, an equaliser from substitute Kingsley Black took the game into extra time, and in the 112th minute Grimsby secured the game courtesy of a golden goal from Wayne Burnett.[1] This was the first major trophy awarded to the club following its first appearance at Wembley. It took only four weeks for Grimsby to return to the stadium though, this time to face Northampton Town in the Division Two Play Off Final.[1] Town won the game 1–0 thanks to a first half Kevin Donovan goal which gave the club a historic Wembley double and The Mariners promotion back to Division One.[1]

Final league table

Main article: 1997–98 Football League

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Watford	46	24	16	6	67	41	+26	88	Division Champions, promoted
2	Bristol City	46	25	10	11	69	39	+30	85	Promoted
3	Grimsby Town	46	19	15	12	55	37	+18	72	Promoted through play-offs
4	Northampton	46	18	17	11	52	37	+15	71	Participated in play-offs
5	Bristol Rovers	46	20	10	16	70	64	+6	70

Source:
Rules for classification: In the Football League goals scored (GF) takes precedence over goal difference (GD).

Results

Grimsby Town's score comes first[2]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League Second Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	Bristol City	H	1–1	6,220	Widdrington
16 August 1997	Plymouth Argyle	A	2–2	6,002	Donovan (pen), Nogan
23 August 1997	Wrexham	H	0–0	4,404
30 August 1997	Brentford	A	1–3	3,875	Nogan
2 September 1997	Preston North End	A	0–2	9,489
9 September 1997	York City	H	0–0	5,308
13 September 1997	Fulham	A	2–0	6,874	Livingstone (2)
20 September 1997	Millwall	H	0–1	4,267
27 September 1997	Bournemouth	A	1–0	3,712	Groves
4 October 1997	Wigan Athletic	H	2–1	4,623	Donovan (2 pens)
11 October 1997	Northampton Town	H	1–0	4,778	Donovan
18 October 1997	Blackpool	A	2–2	5,234	Nogan, Donovan (pen)
21 October 1997	Oldham Athletic	A	0–2	4,520
25 October 1997	Watford	H	0–1	5,699
1 November 1997	Southend United	H	5–1	4,501	Nogan (2), Lester, Groves, Widdrington
4 November 1997	Walsall	A	0–0	2,599
8 November 1997	Chesterfield	A	0–1	5,004
22 November 1997	Burnley	H	4–1	4,829	Groves, Widdrington, Lester, Nogan
29 November 1997	Gillingham	A	2–0	4,855	Jobling, Black
2 December 1997	Wycombe Wanderers	H	0–0	4,160
12 December 1997	Bristol Rovers	A	4–0	4,801	Gallimore, Livingstone (2), Donovan
20 December 1997	Carlisle United	H	1–0	6,222	McDermott
26 December 1997	York City	A	0–0	7,093
28 December 1997	Preston North End	H	3–1	6,725	Donovan (2), Black
10 January 1998	Bristol City	A	1–4	12,567	Groves
17 January 1998	Brentford	H	4–0	4,624	Groves, Smith, Donovan, Clare
31 January 1998	Fulham	H	1–1	6,785	Burnett
7 February 1998	Millwall	A	1–0	6,020	Livingstone
14 February 1998	Wigan Athletic	A	2–0	3,548	Nogan, Donovan
21 February 1998	Bournemouth	H	2–1	5,456	O'Neil (own goal), Groves
24 February 1998	Blackpool	H	1–0	4,924	Clare
28 February 1998	Northampton Town	A	1–2	6,932	Donovan
3 March 1998	Chesterfield	H	0–0	4,940
7 March 1998	Southend United	A	1–0	4,829	Clare
14 March 1998	Walsall	H	3–0	4,916	Nogan, Donovan (2)
21 March 1998	Luton Town	A	2–2	5,700	Gallimore, Donovan
24 March 1998	Plymouth Argyle	H	1–0	4,661	Groves
28 March 1998	Burnley	A	1–2	8,256	Lester
31 March 1998	Wrexham	A	0–0	5,421
4 April 1998	Gillingham	H	0–0	5,190
7 April 1998	Luton Town	H	0–1	4,455
10 April 1998	Wycombe Wanderers	A	1–1	5,846	Lester
13 April 1998	Bristol Rovers	H	1–2	5,484	Donovan (pen)
21 April 1998	Carlisle United	A	1–0	3,956	Donovan (pen)
25 April 1998	Watford	A	0–0	14,002
2 May 1998	Oldham Athletic	H	0–2	8,054

Second Division play-offs

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
SF 1st Leg	9 May 1998	Fulham	A	1–1	13,954	Smith
SF 2nd Leg	13 May 1998	Fulham	H	1–0 (won 2-1 on agg)	8,689	Donovan
F	24 May 1998	Northampton Town	N	1–0	62,988	Donovan

FA Cup

Main article: 1997–98 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	15 November 1997	Shrewsbury Town	A	1–1	3,193	Southall
R1R	25 November 1997	Shrewsbury Town	H	4–0	3,242	Nogan, Herbert (own goal), Lester, Jobling
R2	6 December 1997	Chesterfield	H	2–2	4,762	Rodger, Nogan
R2R	16 December 1997	Chesterfield	A	2–0	4,553	Lester, Groves
R3	3 January 1998	Norwich City	H	3–0	8,161	McDermott, Woods, Donovan
R4	14 January 1998	Leeds United	A	0–2	29,598

League Cup

Main article: 1997–98 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	12 August 1997	Oldham Athletic	A	0–1	5,656
R1 2nd Leg	26 August 1997	Oldham Athletic	H	5–0 (won 5-1 on agg)	5,078	Lester (3), Livingstone, Donovan
R2 1st Leg	17 September 1997	Sheffield Wednesday	H	2–0	6,429	Groves, Livingstone
R2 2nd Leg	1 October 1997	Sheffield Wednesday	A	2–3 (won 4-3 on agg)	11,120	Nogan, Groves
R3	14 October 1997	Leicester City	H	3–1	7,738	Jobling, Livingstone (2)
R4	18 November 1997	Liverpool	A	0–3	28,515

Football League Trophy

Main article: 1997–98 Football League Trophy

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
NR1	9 December 1997	Chesterfield	A	1–0	1,128	Nogan
NR2	6 January 1998	Hull City	H	1–0	4,778	Butterfield
NQF	27 January 1998	Scunthorpe United	A	2–0	4,596	Groves, Burnett
NSF	17 February 1998	Blackpool	H	1–0	8,027	Burnett
NF 1st Leg	10 March 1998	Burnley	H	1–1	6,064	Groves
NF 2nd Leg	17 March 1998	Burnley	A	2–0 (won 3-1 on agg)	10,257	Nogan, Donovan
F	19 April 1998	Bournemouth	N	2–1	62,432	Glass (own goal), Burnett

Squad

[3]

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Second Division		Play-offs		FA Cup		FL Cup		FL Trophy
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
-	GK		Aidan Davison	63	0	42+0	0	3+0	0	6+0	0	5+0	0	7+0	0
-	GK		Jason Pearcey	5	0	4+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	1+0	0	0+0	0
-	DF		Peter Handyside	64	0	40+2	0	1+0	0	6+0	0	6+0	0	8+1	0
-	DF		John McDermott	62	2	40+1	1	3+0	0	6+0	1	5+0	0	7+0	0
-	DF		Mark Lever	54	0	37+1	0	3+0	0	1+1	0	5+0	0	6+0	0
-	DF		Tony Gallimore	56	2	34+1	2	3+0	0	6+0	0	5+0	0	7+0	0
-	DF		Kevin Jobling	44	3	17+13	1	0+1	0	5+0	1	1+3	1	2+2	0
-	DF		Graham Rodger	19	1	10+1	0	0+0	0	5+0	1	1+1	0	1+0	0
-	DF		Danny Butterfield	11	1	4+3	0	0+0	0	0+1	0	1+0	0	1+1	1
-	DF		Matthew Bloomer	1	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+1	0
-	DF		Ben Chapman	1	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+1	0
-	DF		Ashley Fickling	0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0
-	MF		Paul Groves	68	12	46+0	7	3+0	0	6+0	1	6+0	2	7+0	2
-	MF		Kevin Donovan	67	21	46+0	16	3+0	2	6+0	1	6+0	1	6+0	1
-	MF		Kingsley Black	55	2	24+15	2	0+3	0	4+0	0	5+0	0	2+2	0
-	MF		Wayne Burnett	29	4	20+1	1	3+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	5+0	3
-	MF		David Smith	25	2	17+0	1	3+0	1	1+0	0	0+0	0	4+0	0
-	MF		Tommy Widdrington	30	3	15+6	3	0+0	0	2+0	0	5+1	0	1+0	0
-	MF		Dave Gilbert	6	0	5+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	1+0	0	0+0	0
-	MF		Nicky Southall	9	1	4+1	0	0+0	0	1+1	1	1+1	0	0+0	0
-	MF		Paul Holsgrove	10	0	3+7	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0
-	MF		Jim Dobbin	2	0	1+1	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0
-	MF		Darren Wrack	2	0	0+1	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+1	0
-	MF		Gary Childs	0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0	0+0	0
-	FW		Lee Nogan	54	13	33+3	8	3+0	0	4+0	2	6+0	1	5+0	2
-	FW		Steve Livingstone	59	9	28+13	5	0+2	0	2+3	0	3+3	4	4+1	0
-	FW		Jack Lester	57	9	27+13	4	3+0	0	4+0	2	3+2	3	1+4	0
-	FW		Daryl Clare	33	3	8+14	3	0+1	0	1+4	0	0+0	0	4+1	0
-	FW		Neil Woods	14	1	1+9	0	0+0	0	0+1	1	0+2	0	1+0	0

• Source:

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
1 August 1997	MF	Kevin Donovan	West Bromwich Albion	£300,000
1 August 1997	MF	Paul Groves	West Bromwich Albion	£250,000
1 August 1997	FW	Lee Nogan	Reading	£170,000
16 January 1998	MF	David Smith	West Bromwich Albion	£200,000
12 February 1998	MF	Wayne Burnett	Huddersfield Town	£100,000
26 March 1998	MF	Jim Dobbin	Scarborough	Free transfer

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
1 August 1997	MF	John Oster	Everton	£1,500,000
7 August 1997	MF	Jimmy Neil	Scunthorpe United	Free transfer
1 September 1997	MF	Gary Childs	Wisbech Town	Free transfer
6 December 1997	MF	Nicky Southall	Gillingham	Free transfer

Transfers in: £1,020,000

Transfers out: £1,500,000

Total spending: £480,000

References

1. "Buckley savours Wembley hat-trick". BBC Sport. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
2. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/grimsby-town/1997-1998/results
3. http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=1148&teamTabs=stats&season_id=127